Before this time coffee was scarce known in Persia, and very little used
in Arabia, where the tree grew. But, according to Schehabeddin, it had
been drunk in Æthiopia from time immemorial.

Coffee being thus received at Aden, where it has continued in use ever
since without interruption, passed by degrees to many neighbouring
towns; and not long after reached Mecca, where it was introduced as at
Aden, by the Dervises, and for the same purposes of religion.

The inhabitants of Mecca were at last so fond of this liquor, that,
without regarding the intention of the religious, and other studious
persons, they at length drank it publicly in coffee-houses, where they
assembled in crowds to pass the time agreeably, making that the
pretense. From hence the custom extended itself to many other towns of
Arabia, particularly to Medina, and then to Grand Cairo in Egypt, where
the Dervises of Yemen, who lived in a district by themselves, drank
coffee on the nights they intended to spend in devotion.

Coffee continued its progress through Syria, and was received at
Damascus and Aleppo without opposition; and in the year 1554, under the
reign of Solyman, one hundred years after its introduction by the Mufti
of Aden, became known to the inhabitants of Constantinople, when two
private persons of the names of Schems and Hekin, the one coming from
Damascus, and the other from Aleppo, opened coffee-houses.

"It is not easy," says Ellis, "to determine at what time, or upon what
occasion, the use of coffee passed from Constantinople to the western
parts of Europe. It is, however, likely that the Venetians, upon account
of the proximity of their dominions, and their great trade to the